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Hi Guys,Last Tuesday the largest expansion ever dropped onto our consoles for Destiny, this went by the name of The Taken King. Today I want to bring you my thoughts on this expansion after just over 20 hours spent with the game. I have completed the first Act of the game, which is what contains the cutscenes etc, but still have the second act to complete. I have also not even touched the Raid, so my full review will come when I have finished those two things!

Without further ado, I will start by talking about it in a large sense, then take a look at some of the smaller additions, and whether I like them, and if they work well or not.

Loot

First up, the new gear is far more powerful than the old gear. This might be a fairly obvious statement to make, but within the first mission alone, I was finding new Green and Blue tier weapons and armour pieces that were higher attack and defence levels than my full levelled old gear. I love this because it makes us use the new weapons, which are at least visually incredibly different from our old Year 1 favourites. There are far more ways to earn weapons now, than there were before. For a start I have probably seen as many blue engrams turn into Legendaries in the time I've played The Taken King, as I did in the whole time I spent in year 1. Also I have earned my first ever Exotic weapon from a legendary engram(sadly it was only Thunderlord, not a weapon new to Year 2). These increased drop rates are extremely useful for getting new weapons to Infuse with(more on that soon) or dismantle for Legendary Marks!

Infusion

Okay, so I just mentioned Infusion, this is a new system introduced with The Taken King, exclusively on Year 2 weapons(so you can't bring Year 1 weapons into Year 2). This works on the principle that if you have a weapon with a higher attack or defence rating than the one you are currently using, but you want to keep the one you are using, you can sacrifice the new weapon, into the old one to make the old one better. This works fairly well, but not exceedingly well. I would like the ability to infuse two weapons with the same ratings, and they increase. As it is, Infusion only serves the purpose of keeping the armour and weapons you like relevant to your current activities. This is nice, but there is a point to be raised that maybe you should just use the new higher level item. That being said, it is a very nice feature to have, once you find that one piece that you really love.

Light Levels

While we are on the subject of armour and weapon stat levels, let's talk about the new Light Levelling System. Rather than the old levelling system where only your 4 pieces of armour contribute to your armour level, this lead to a system where you couldn't really change your armour, lest you lose levels. Now you overall Light Level is decided by an average of your three weapons, Ghost, four pieces of armour, and an Artifact. This means that each individual piece counts with a much smaller percentage towards your overall light level! So your level will now increase in much smaller increments. Of course it should be noted, that the normal system of levelling up to 40 is still achieved by earning XP, I was level 34 going into The Taken King,, and it took me around about 7 hours to increase my level to 40. As it stands, I have spent around about 30 hours in game since Taken King launched, and I am Light Level 293, while my level 34 character was around the 160 mark!

General Changes

Right, in my last section for today, I want to talk to you about some general changes that I really like, and some that I like a little less!

First off, the best addition to the game in my opinion, are the Quests, technically this was introduced in Patch 2.0, but is most noticeable with the new content introduced with The Taken King. You are guided through the campaign via the quests, and for me there was always a very clear end goal, which I won't spoil. I also felt like I always knew why I was doing what I was doing, I never felt lost as to why I had to do this section. You can always check you Quests in the menu, and catch up with where you are in the story, if you have taken a break.

The Quests in the game continue after you have finished the main campaign, with quests from various people, taking the "story" part of the game much further beyond the campaign. Beyond even that, there are various Exotic Quests you can embark upon, which will give you a guaranteed Exotic weapon! It seems to me that there are only 4 new Exotic weapons than can be acquired via "RNG", those are the Jade Rabbit(PlayStation Exclusive), Zahlo Supercell holding down the Primaries fort, and for Specials, we have Telesto and Hereafter. Due to the farming capability of the Three of Coins last weekend, I have both Special weapons listed above, so expect a review for each of those soon! Don't think that there aren't many new Exotic weapons in Taken King, quite on the contrary, there are approximately 12, which means that most of the new weapons can be aimed for, and worked towards. Though expect them to be either tough or rather long!

That concludes my first thoughts on The Taken King, all in all it is an amazing addition to Destiny, and I can't wait to play more of it, and get my teeth into the new Raid! I will of course have more content for The Taken King, in the coming weeks.